Maakroun معكرون – St barbara traditional lebanese sweet

December 4, Christians celebrate St Barbara. The great martyr Barbara, as known in the church was a christian saint and martyr. Barbara won particular fame for the horrifying fact that her death sentence by beheading was carried out by her own father, a wealthy pagan who had first isolated her in a tower and then denounced her to the Roman authorities when she became a Christian.

One of the Lebanese traditions on that day, is making sweets such as atayef (dough stuffed with cream or nuts), maakroun (flour and semolina fried cookies bathed in sugar syrup) , zlebyeh (fried dough with sugar or honey) and ameh (boiled wheat).

I will share with you the healthiest version of maakroun, baked.

To prepare maakroun you need:

2 cups flour

1 cup fine semolina (thin ferkha as known in lebanon)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp mahaleb (optional)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup water

1 tbsp anise

For the sugar syrup:

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 tsp orange blossom water

1 tbsp lemon juice

Usually i start by preparing the sugar syrup, because i need them to be at room temperature when i want to soak in the maakroun.

In a pan let the sugar melt in the water on a medium heat. Then add the lemon juice and bring down to low heat for 10 minutes until it thickens. Turn off the heat then add the orange blossom water. Put aside to become room temperature.

To prepare the maakroun, mix flour, semolina, sugar, baking powder mahaleb, anise and oil. Then add the water slowly and knead the dough to the desired consistency and let it rest for half an hour.

There is another way also, my mum’s, she boils the water and anise and let it cool. She mix all dry ingredients and she knead the dough with the anise water.

Divide the dough in small to medium balls (depending how big you like it to be), roll each ball on a grater to get the texture above in the picture. Some people like to deep fry it in oil but for a lighter and healthier result i bake it for 20 mns on 180°C. Start checking on the minute 15 as you don’t want them to become hard but soft crunchy.

Soak it in the sugar syrup for 15 minutes then take it out and satisfy your sweet tooth. 3a2bel kel seneh!

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page. More posts yet to come, stay tuned!